This is a public asset and he should pay the appropriate price. It is not there for someone to make a fast buck

Peter Ainsworth, shadow culture secretary

Mr Bourne's forecast of a speedy profit, in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, attracted renewed accusations that the government was selling off the beleaguered attraction at a giveaway price.

Mr Bourne, who has donated �100,000 to Labour funds over the past three years, said his Legacy consortium expected to turn a profit on the Dome deal by 2004.

Legacy have offered �125m for the Greenwich site, which the consortium plans to turn into a high-tech business park and, more controversially, develop adjoining land for luxury housing.

Mr Bourne insisted the government would share in any profits from the development.

"The agreement had a whole range of conditions and anti-embarrassment clauses, sharing arrangements, guarantees and obligations," he said.

Shadow culture secretary Peter Ainsworth said he had nothing against the consortium making a profit on the deal but the Dome was "a public asset and he should pay the appropriate price".

"It is not there for someone to make a fast buck."

Mr Bourne also predicted that Legacy, the government's preferred bidder, would sign up to a finalised deal "very shortly".

Legacy would be meeting the government's competition team on Tuesday to finalise the details. The team will then produce a report for ministers by Friday ahead of a final meeting on Monday, according to the paper.

Dome stunt dashed

The public blame the last government as much as the present government for the Dome's problems

Dome spokesman

Meanwhile, the unhappy touch of the Dome extended its hand to a Conservative stunt aimed at highlighting the party's launch of a new campaign on tax.

The party had wanted to project on to the Dome one of its new campaign slogans but the projectionists were moved on by security guards.

Transit vans carrying generators and a projector were asked to move by security workers outside the Dome in Greenwich, south east London, before light on Tuesday morning - and before they could fully beam the image.

The projected message "You paid the tax - So where's all the money gone?" appeared blurry and shadowy on the Dome's canopy.

A spokesman for Conservative Central Office said: "We were projecting our image on the Dome and they stopped us.

"Quite frankly, they were stopping the most interesting thing that has happened at the Dome in the last year. Good luck to them."

He added: "That is the way it goes really."

Two-minute show

The stunt was part of the party's poster campaign attacking the government's "tax and waste" spending policy.

A Dome spokesman later said: "I would question the wisdom of turning the Dome into a political issue in the election. The public blame the last government as much as the present government for the Dome's problems."

He added: "Two white Transit vans came up to our property at around 6.20am and opened up their back doors to momentarily project an image on to the Dome.

"Our on-site fire crews were passing and parked between the projection and the Dome. The image was only up on the Dome for about two minutes.

"The vans were on our property without authority and we also have a policy that anyone wanting to project an image on to the Dome has to pay a fee."